The Associated Press quotes witnesses in Mogadishu as saying the fighting killed several people, including civilians, soldiers and police.

On Wednesday, Islamist militants attacked two Ethiopian military convoys, one in the central Hiran region, and another in the Lower Shabelle region, to the south.

In both incidents, witnesses say the Ethiopian troops responded by opening fire on civilians. They say the violence killed several Somali Islamists and Ethiopians and at least 17 civilians. One of those killed was a Somali Islamist commander, Amin Barkhadle.

Earlier this week, human rights group Amnesty International accused Ethiopian troops of committing atrocities in Somalia. The Ethiopian government rejected the allegations and demanded an apology.

Ethiopia sent troops to Somalia in late 2006 to help the weak Somali government combat an Islamist-led insurgency and bitter clan rivalries.

Also Wednesday, a roadside bomb killed three Somali government soldiers on a road between Mogadishu and the town of Baidoa. Elsewhere, a shooting attack on a World Food Program convoy in central Somalia killed a truck driver hired by the U.N. agency.